Pakistan was not aware of Osama bin Laden’s presence in Abbottabad: Obama

NEW DELHI: Former United States president Barack Obama said that there is no evidence that the Pakistan government was aware of the presence of al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad, Pakistan.

He said this while addressing the 15th Hindustan Times Leadership Summit at Hyatt Regency in New Delhi.

“We had no evidence that Pakistani government was aware of Osama bin Laden’s presence in Abbottabad,” he said. “We obviously looked at it.”

US Special Forces killed Osama Bin Laden and four others in a covert US raid, on a compound located near the Pakistan Military Academy Kakul in Abbottabad on May 2, 2011. An aide of Osama purchased the land measuring seven kanals in 2004 and a three-story building was constructed over more than three kanals of the plot in Bilal town.

Ever since the raid took place there was much speculation whether bin Laden had Pakistan state support to keep hiding in the compound. However, documents seized from Bin Laden’s compound did not show sufficient evidence of any probable support from the establishment.